10 December 2010: Our Lady of Loreto

The Holy House of Nazareth where Mary was born remains preserved in Loreto, Italy. In this sandstone and brick home, the site of many pilgrimages for ages, the Blessed Virgin received the Archangel’s message about her Divine maternity. [She lived here after her betrothal. (John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)]

The Holy House of Loreto

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin under the invocation “‘Our Lady of Loreto’ is linked to the house of the Holy Family in Nazareth”. The Holy Patriarch carefully prepared this home to be the best possible place for Our Lady and the Child who was to come. From the beginning, though, this house was Mary’s home.

“Every home is above all a sanctuary created by the mother. She is the one to set it up in accord with her particular personality.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)

God desires that all “children of the human family be born into the world within the protective warmth of a family. All children need to have a roof over their heads.

“As we know, the home in Nazareth was not the birthplace of Jesus; but in a stable at distant Bethlehem. He could not even go back to Nazareth on account of King Herod’s edict that all infants in Bethlehem be slain.

"St Joseph was obliged to evacuate the Holy Family to Egypt. Only after Herod had died did the Holy Patriarch dare to take Mary and the Child back to Nazareth.

“From the time of their return the Holy Family shared their daily life in this house, hidden from the world’s view. Their home was the first church to be warmed with Mary’s affection.

"In the midst of the ordinary work these most beloved creatures of God carried out, she lit up their home with a radiant cheerfulness rooted in the great mystery of her divine Son’s Incarnation.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)

“We can’t forget that Mary spent nearly every day of her life like millions of other women who look after their families: bringing up their children and taking care of the house. Mary sanctifies the ordinary, everyday things -- what some people wrongly regard as unimportant, trivial -- everyday work, looking after those closest to you, visits to friends and relatives. What a blessed ordinariness, that can be so full of love of God.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 148)

Leo XIII wrote: “What a wonderful model of daily living the Holy Family offers us! ... the perfect example of a Christian home. Each person lives with a tremendous simplicity in carrying out daily responsibilities while pursuing common goals with genuine mutual affection. There is no time for disordered or selfish pursuits. Each one carries out his or her particular responsibilities with such human and supernatural affection that others are edified to behold it.” (Encyclical, “Laetitiae sanctae”, 3)

Pope John Paul II prayed at Loreto -- “Accept, O Blessed Mother of the House of Loreto, my pilgrimage and that of all of us, as a common prayer for the family life of all the men and women of our age. We pray for the well-being of these homes, that they may prepare the sons and daughters of all to enter into the heavenly dwelling place of our common Father in heaven.” (cf John Paul II, “Address”, 8 September 1979)

We entrust our home to the Blessed Mother so she may help us care for it as though it were the house of God. May each person at home be able to grow in the practice of human and supernatural virtues. “We pray that our home be radiant with loving mutual concern so every member can be nourished with the warmth and affection of the others.” (John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, “Familiaris Consortio”, 37)

May our family life be a ‘foretaste of heaven’, an anticipation of eternal life.

Ref: cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 7:344-50

‘Our Lady of Loreto. Pray for us.’

Translation: Holy House of Loreto (‘Santa Casa di Loreto’). Loreto, Italy. 1291. House, a relic said to be the actual building where Joseph, Mary, and Jesus lived. ... "translation" is the date when angels are said to have moved the house from Israel to Italy. (English tradition-- exact copy of house was constructed by angels in Walsingham, England, mid-11th Century). (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).

Translation of the Holy House of Loretto, Italy (1291). (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html).

On the Divine Attributes -- God is an Infinite Being and our Sovereign Good

God in His essence is infinite and eternal. His perfections are countless and immeasurable. From Him all existing or possible creatures derive their being: innumerable worlds, nations, kingdoms, and empires, the ranks of the heavenly host, the infinite variety of animals, plants, minerals; each precious stone, every delicious scent or sweet sound.

Whoever possesses God possesses and enjoys all these things; but as they are nothing in comparison to God the Sovereign Good, he enjoys incomparably more in the possession of God alone than he would in possessing them all without God, their author and their source.

God is an incomprehensible Being. The creature being finite, the Creator infinite, and the finite not being capable of comprehending the infinite, it follows that God cannot be comprehended by any created intelligence, not even by the very angels themselves.

The knowledge of the wisest of men, of the highest of saints, is unequal to the task. He is, as the Psalmist says, “an ocean without shore or bottom”. Those blessed souls admitted to the Beatific Vision in all its fullness, who contemplate Him through all eternity, ever find fresh beauties and perfections which eternity itself cannot exhaust.

God has existed from all eternity. He could neither spring into being from Himself, nor at the command of another. His eternity is infinite, incomprehensible. St Augustine speaks well when he says, “Eternity is God”.

This eternal God exists purely and simply, without division of past and future. He is likewise unchangeable both in will and action. When we read in the Scriptures that He repented Himself, or that he was moved, it is a mere mode of expression adapted to our feeble intelligence.

Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp781-3

Defeat -- “We have to love God because our heart is made for love. That is why, if we don’t give our heart to God, to Our Lady and Mother, to souls ... with a pure affection, it will seek revenge -- and will breed worms instead.” (cf St Josemaria Escrivá, “The Forge”, 204)

Institution of ‘Nuns of the Conception of Our Lady’, by Beatrice de Sylva, to whom it is said that Our Lady appeared in the year 1484, clothed with a white robe and a scapular of the same color, with a blue mantle. Beatrice, sister of Blessed Amadeus, adopted this habit for her order, which was approved by Innocent VIII under the rule of Citeaux. — Vasconcellius, in Descriptione regni Lusitaniae. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm).